Analytics as a Service

Demand Forecasting

We have designed our consumer demand forecast service to provide retailers with the insight and information needed to make educated decisions when planning inventory short term (3-5 months) and long term (12+ months).

Table of Contents

Demand Forecasting

Definition

Demand forecasting in retail is fundamentally the process of developing an estimate of the future customer demand

Problems Solved

  • Restricted budgets
  • High or unbalanced inventory levels
  • Risk of being in a lengthy contract
  • Attracting and retaining the right talent (data scientists)
  • Unable to accurately plan merchandise allocation/replenishment (as a whole or per location)
  • Time consuming when having to change plans due to unexpected events (low sales, weather etc.)

Relevant Roles

Planners, Demand Forecasters/Analysts

Detailed Description

 

 

Retailers are under unprecedented pressure to plan and execute inventory across the business in a rapidly changing environment. Forecasting consumer demand is a key step in anticipating inventory need in the business.

Building an accurate consumer demand forecast is not easy however, especially when historical data has little similarity to demand impacted by COVID lockdowns. If forecasting is produced based in 2018 and 2019 historical data, it is important to heavily factor in 2020 and 2021 since historical sales profile curves will likely look radically different from 2019 to 2020 due to the dramatic impact of COVID lockdowns on retail results world-wide.

Success Stories